Gavin writes in The problem with The Good News magazine:
There is really no way to successfully negotiate with such people. Whatever they agree to is merely to buy time to prepare for the needed world conflagration.Where's the balance here? This is a petulant piece by a man with - please correct me if I'm wrong - zero expertise in this subject, and who has one suspects been spending far too much time on the sofa with Fox News and WND.
UCG Iran "expert" Robinson
What's the allure of this kind of rant? Why won't the GN provide some sort of sane overview of the situation - which is what it would claim to be doing but clearly is not. Why are they incapable of even hinting at an optimistic assessment of the Iran deal... even if only to provide some much needed balance.
It just doesn't fit the narrative.
The narrative, based on a profound ignorance of what the Bible is (and isn't) has the world going into an irrecoverable tail spin. Things might look bad right now but they're going to get worse. And there's nothing you can do about it but belly-ache and moan. This constitutes "warning the world", which (don't laugh!) constitutes preaching the gospel.
Almost all of the various splinter groups seem to get giddy at the thought of world wars, famine, disease and human suffering. It has to happen because Herbert told them that it would. Almost none of these men have any education outside of Church of God institutions or circles of insular thought processes.
Almost all of the men in UCG leadership positions are men who apostatized from their mother church in an act of rebellion in order to keep their salaries in tact.
One reader on Gavin's blog, whom no one ever agrees with, had this accurate comment about UCG:
UCG is a political organisation, which was started by a pack of hirelings, to fleece the gullible out of tithes and offerings! In civilian life, these men couldn't get proper jobs, to maintain the lifestyle they were accustomed to in WCG. So they started their own chuch, and now paid 6 figure salaries for talking and writing nonsense! They should all be in prison!
Church of God leaders and various ministers have set themselves up as authorities on all kinds of world news and events. From the Philadelphia Church of God to the Restored Church of God, poorly educated men rely on Fox News and WorldNetDaily for their news, though only as long as the news fits the COG perspective and can be used to prop up pet fantasies (prophecies).